Our clients can benefit from personalized French courses and lessons, French translation/interpreting courses, and other French language services such as translation, consulting, or project assistance.

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“I worked with Gabrielle for several weeks to learn basic French in preparation for a Paris vacation I was planning to take. I was an absolute beginner– I knew no French at all. Gabrielle prepared me very well for my trip. She went beyond teaching me rote travel phrases and instead taught me basic sentence building blocks so I could make simple French sentences on my own. When I took my vacation I used my new (although of course still limited) French language skills. I asked for my room key in French every day. One day I was shopping in a small store and was conversing in my limited French. I guess the shop owner was pleased that I was trying so hard, because as I left he stopped me and took two keychains off the hook and gave them to me as a gift! Another day a French person told me my accent was good, my pronunciation was good. (That’s thanks to Gabrielle!) I went out a lot by myself. I went to the grocery store, pharmacy, macaron shop, department store, and restaurants. I got to know the area pretty well. Gabrielle had instructed me on how to use the metro and to become familiar with the metro stations nearest to my hotel. I knew if I could get back to the Ecole Militaire metro station then I was “home”. Learning French with Gabrielle was a very good, very positive experience!” Pam (Art Teacher), French Immersion program

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Learning to speak French, the time-honoured language of European intellectualism, will greatly enhance your voyage experience to France; it will certainly help you make local friends, too! Moreover, it will put a genuine Parisian accent into your French menu orders…. Above all, being able to truly understand this extraordinary culture while on a trip to France will constitute a reward in itself.

French is among the few languages spoken all over the world, ranked the 6th most widely spoken language after Mandarin Chinese, English, Hindi, Spanish, and Arabic. There are currently over 220 million French speakers worldwide; Europe accounts for 39.87% of the French-speaking population, sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian Ocean for 36.03%, North Africa and the Middle East for 15.28%, America and the Caribbean for 7.66% and Asia/Oceania for 1.16% (OIF, La langue française dans le monde, 2010). In Europe, the largest populations of French speakers outside of France are located in Belgium (45% of the population), Switzerland (20% of the population) and Luxembourg.

French is spoken in France, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Monaco, Quebec, Louisiana, Gabon, Mauritius, Alger, Nigeria, Haiti, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, and in smaller francophone communities. Some might not be aware that in the not-so-remote past French was the elite’s language in most European countries: a must-know subject that established a tradition of bilingualism still noticeable nowadays in the U.K. and some West-European countries as well as in East-European Romania.

While the French government has been taking measures to protect the linguistic heritage and re-popularize French as the “language of diplomacy” (with U.S. English in the role of “the language of business”), French is one of the three procedural languages of the European Union, along with English and German, and the sole language used for the deliberations of the Court of Justice of the European Union. (France Diplomatiehttps://www. diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/french-foreign-policy/francophony-and-the-french-language/the-status-of-french-in-the-world/) Recent studies estimated that, by 2050, French might become the most spoken language in the world — based on the fact that French is spoken in the most fast-growing areas in the world, e.g. sub-Saharan Africa.

Le Jardin des Tuileries, Paris

France, a founding member of the European Union and the world’s most popular destination for foreign tourists, is a country many Americans visit in search of wonderful food, cultural challenge, and incursions into an extraordinary history; they also love to discover what la joie de vivre truly means in Paris. Many students of French aspire to continue their education at some of France’s famous universities, or to make new friends in Provence and on the elegant beaches of Côte d’Azur.

Through our French courses, you can become familiar with the intricacies of French grammar and pronunciation; learn about the enduring charm of French culture (its classical literature, politics, and history); and you could also come into contact with “the French exception” through a selection of literary masterpieces.